Cowardly Hero
by SecretNinja17
Summary: Vin kept the shield walls up, it was his job. So what really happened when they went down? Spoilers for Jak II.
1. Chapter 1

Haven city wasn't a happy, kind city like those in children's stories or fairy tales. It wasn't a clean city, or a beautiful city. It wasn't ruled by a gracious compassionate leader (as if Baron Praxis could ever be considered either of those things) with a pretty, giggling princess (in fact Ashlin would most likely kill anyone who called her that). It wasn't a city with friendly helpful citizens or guards. No, it was none of these things. But it was, if nothing else, safe. Well, as safe as a city could be when it was full of sadistic KG, threatening messages boomed out over the streets, very explosive vehicles and easily obtained guns. But at least it didn't have Metalheads, that was the most important thing. Metalheads roamed just outside the city walls, waiting for the shields to come down so they could add Haven city to their list of civilisations they'd dragged into the sands of the wasteland. Thankfully the city shield walls had never been broken, or let down, and never would be if Vin had anything to do about it.

Vin was the strip mine foreman and secret underground informant. This meant that he took care of the eco-grid, and in turn the shield walls. At least that was the 'foreman' bit of it. By being a secret underground informant he was putting that at jeopardy. Most would say that putting a job ahead of the city would sound selfish but in Vin's case it was true. If he lost his job as the strip mine foreman the city shield walls would be gone within a few days. He was the only one that could work the eco-grid.

Of course Baron Praxis refused to admit this, there were others that could take his job, but none good enough or fast enough to keep up with the damage the Metalheads were causing. And so, by this pure luck, Vin had managed to keep his job and still help out Jak, Torn and the underground. However his job was getting harder and harder each day. Or it had been. There had been a sudden drop in Metalhead attacks over the past few days. Vin thought this might mean the Metalheads were planning a final attack, but Torn wouldn't listen to him. Then again he did say the Metalheads were coming every few days, no wonder Torn stopped listening.

This time was different thought, it was like a silence on the eco-grid. It just wasn't right. Vin stood on his platform, moving it round the room of giant computers to check and see if there was anything he missed, the silence of it was unbearable. The front door whooshed open and Vin turned the platform round, rather than risk turning round himself and falling off. It was just Kor. His heart rate went back to normal, not that he'd been expecting Metalheads or anything. Okay, well maybe he'd expected them a little, but that was normal paranoia for him. The old man walked into the room quickly, which struck Vin as a little strange since his walk was normally slightly laboured and assisted by his cane. Maybe he'd been taking something for his 'aching bones'.

"How is everything running?"

Kor looked round at the control panels with a curiosity that unnerved Vin somewhat, though he couldn't figure out why.

"Er… good. Too good, it's quiet. I think the Metalheads are planning one final giant attack!"

Vin spoke quickly and waved his arms over his head a bit, overemphasising the concept of a massive attack on the city. Kor raised an eyebrow but otherwise looked unsurprised.

"Oh? Have you told anyone about this?"

Vin tried to think back in his mind as to if he'd told anyone other than Torn, but couldn't remember getting round to telling Jak and Daxter about his concerns.

"Well, just Torn, but… he thinks I'm being overly paranoid."

Vin scratched the back of his head and looked embarrassed. Apparently he'd become that much of a nuisance to everyone that they no longer cared for his opinion. Not that he blamed them. He thought he saw Kor smile out of the corner of his eye but when he looked up that same blank expression was on the old man's face.

"Oh dear, it's such a shame when people just stop listening."

Something in his voice sounded almost sarcastic. Vin was getting more and more nervous, a little alarm going off in the back of his head that something wasn't right here. But then again maybe the others were right and he was just paranoid, wasting their time with his own personal issues with the Metalheads and… Vin stopped his train of thought abruptly when he saw Kor reaching out towards one of the control panels.

"Eh, I wouldn't do that if I w-were you."

He stammered a little when Kor paused and looked up. He didn't move his hand from hovering over the buttons. His expression was almost amused, as though thinking of a personal joke.

"Oh? Why not?"

The alarm in Vin's head was screaming at him now, but he still tried to ignore it. Like Torn and Jak said, he was just being overly cautious. He glanced from Kor's hand to the buttons through his goggles.

"T-those control the shield w-walls."

The grin that spread across Kor's face was more than unnerving. It was disturbingly jovial. Kor's hand dropped onto the keyboard and expertly typed in the pass code without looking. The screen flashed red and a stupidly calm sounding female voice rang out in the room.

"Shield walls down. Warning. Shield walls down."

Vin's heart leapt in his chest. If the shield walls were down that would mean he was right, Metalheads were attacking. And Kor helped them! Vin didn't even think, he sped the platform across the room at Kor. The old man didn't seem to expect the foreman to fight back and was shocked when he was slammed into by the hovering platform and thrown out the opening front door. Vin leapt off the platform and let it collide with the metal bridge leading to the centre of the room, barricading the door. He sprinted to the controls and banged furiously on the keys for a few minutes before realising he couldn't bring the shield walls back up with such little eco. It was like turning on a lot of lights at once. It took more energy to start it up than to keep it running. Since the Baron had been bribing Metalheads with eco for some time now the grid was at an all time low. Vin hyperventilated madly for a few moments, trying to stave off an imminent panic attack. He had to try and stay calm, try and think. Right now Metalheads would be swarming into the city from all directions. Vin's head snapped up from it's thought when he heard a low angry growling coming from outside. They'd already made it this far? Vin swallowed and fished in his pocket for his communicator. He dialled the only number he could think of that might do any good at this point. Jak.


	2. Chapter 2

"The shield wall is down! I repeat, the shield wall is down! Sabotaged! Kor did it! I knew that Metalheads would be the end of me…"

The low growling at the door grew louder and Vin could hear a sudden pounding as something dented the metal scrapheap piled against the door. He knew it had to be a Metalhead, nothing else was strong enough to rip the door open like that.

"Oh no! Metalheads at the door! Jak! Aaaarrgh!"

The door flew from it's socket and the crashed platform was sent tumbling down from the bridge. Pieces of shrapnel flew across the room and one knocked Vin to the floor. The communicator spun across the room on the floor. In the doorway stood a very angry looking Kor. He seemed more furious at the fact that Vin had dared fight back than at the platform having hit him. He strode across the room at quite a speed. Vin barely had time to sit up when he was lifted off the floor suddenly by his neck. He was slammed, rather hard, into one of the computer screens, which cracked under the force. His feet dangled a mere inch from the floor as he was lifted up. Kor brought his face level with Vin's and glared wrathfully.

"How dare you!"

Vin swallowed and clutched feebly at Kor's wrist, trying to get the man to let go of his throat, but his grip was tight, too tight for a man his age. Then again Vin was definitely having doubts that Kor was even human. Kor leaned closer to Vin, who was having difficulty breathing at this point.

"You called Jak, didn't you?"

He hissed between suddenly pointed teeth. Vin let out a strangled choke in reply and Kor loosened his grip, just enough to let the genius speak, rolling his eyes. Vin took a deep breath of air. In a short space of time he realised that he was both livid at Kor and absolutely terrified of him. Both parts struggled to get words out first. This resulted in rather loud stammering from Vin as he glared at Kor through his tinted goggles.

"O-of course I d-did, I…"

Kor cut him off by tightening his grip again and snarled at the foreman. He'd had good plans, ruined now because of this stammering, useless eco controller. He was going to have Jak find the Precursor stone for him and hand it over himself. It would have been the perfect end to Haven city and the world. The dark Jak would deliver the key to the worlds destruction willingly and his purer self would unlock it. Now Jak would not trust Kor, let alone hand him the Precursor stone. Kor's eyes turned black briefly as he envisioned tearing Vin apart there and then for ruining his plans.

"Now Jak will never trust me! I'll have to go to the construction site myself and get that stone!"

Vin felt himself going dizzy as his grip on Kor's hand weakened and his arms fell limp to his sides. Kor was going after the Precursor stone and there was no way he could warn anyone. Once again he'd proven himself useless, just like at the strip mine. Kor wasn't paying much attention to Vin, thinking to himself how he might yet fix this, when he spotted the communicator lying next to his foot on the floor. He gave it a kick into the air with his foot and caught it in his free hand. An idea suddenly hit him. He could yet win back Jak's trust. He turned back to Vin, who was quickly turning a pale shade of blue. He loosened his grip once more. Vin made a croaking noise in his throat and panted faintly as he tried to get oxygen back into his system. Kor let him recover slightly before holding the communicator up to his face.

"You want to live, don't you?"

Vin nodded uncertainly. His fear of death was definitely stronger now that he was staring it in the face. Kor grinned dangerously.

"I'll let you live… IF you do one last thing."

Vin tried to take a deep breath but couldn't, taking a series of smaller shuddering breaths instead. He nodded again, though it hurt more this time. Kor seemed pleased that he was getting cooperation.

"I'm going to press redial and when Jak picks up I want you to say 'Kor didn't do it', got it."

Vin swallowed and nodded again, vaguely aware of the fact that Kor could snap his neck if he so wished. Kor held the Communicator up closer to Vin's face and with a quick flick of the wrist pressed redial. Vin waited for the click that signalled that Jak had picked up.

"…Jak…"

His voice was quiet and weak. It was painful for him to speak and he almost gave up right there. Kor frowned and, despite not moving, was obviously motioning for Vin to keep talking. Vin closed his eyes as tears threatened to surface from the raw pain in his throat.

"…Kor…"

He paused again to let himself recover slightly. Kor felt he was being very patient in all this, letting Vin talk for himself. Vin blinked back tears again, his goggles fogging up slightly from the effort and Kor leaning so close. Did he really want this? He would live, but he'd know himself forever as the coward that lived to let his friends die. Torn was a leader, Jak was a hero. Vin was a paranoid coward and that was all he'd ever be known as, alive or dead. He didn't care. He had to do the right thing, even if it killed him. He opened his mouth to speak, trying hard to ignore Kor's impatient expression.

"…Construction site…"

He smiled weakly when he heard the Communicator be thrown to the floor with great force as it smashed into pieces. Kor let out an inhuman roar as he intensify his hold on Vin. Now Jak would know that Kor was a traitor and where to find him. Kor pulled Vin away from the broken control panel and hissed furiously in his face like a cat dropped in water. Vin refused to look scared, setting his face in a pitiful glare.

There was one last thing he could do to help out his friends. His hand at his side slipped into his pocket and pulled out a small not quite flat looking disk. It was barely the size of his hand, but he knew it would do the trick, especially if it compared in any way to the bombs at the strip mine that Jak and Daxter had helped him out with. In that split moment where Kor hissed in his face, Vin flicked his arm forwards, with more energy than he thought he'd need, and attached the disk in Kor's hair, just at the base of his neck, and pressed a little button on it. Thankfully Kor didn't notice, he was too infuriated to.

Kor spun round and held Vin dangling from the edge of the room over the eco-grid. He snarled once more before shoving Vin's body roughly into the wires running up the walls. Blue eco darted out of the coils like lightning and coursed through Vin's body. His mouth hung open in utter pain, but all he could think of was how he'd done the right thing and hoped and prayed that his small but powerful bomb might do some good for his friends. As long as Kor didn't notice it. The pain intensified and Vin saw smoke from the corner of his eye where his hair singed black at the edges. Suddenly as it started the lightning stopped. Vin went limp. The last thing he saw was Kor staring down at him and the room falling away as he plummeted into the eco-grid. Then all he saw was white. A sudden sadness gripped him as he realised he must be dead. But the sadness was not for himself. It was for those allies, those friends who he would never know the fate of. Had his message made it through? Would they be alright without him? Would they even care?

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

Kor lunged at Jak, hissing and spitting. He'd caused too much trouble and now he must die. The giant Metalhead leader jabbed at Jak as he sprinted to and fro to try and confuse the beast. Jak shot a bolt from his peacemaker which hit Kor in the shoulder. He bellowed in fury but stopped mid roar when a peculiar sensation hit his upper back. It felt like an extra pulse, ticking away at the base of his neck. Kor's eyes widened in realisation. It was a bomb! He spread his wings and made a desperate bid at life. He dived at the rift gate in a vain attempt to either shake off the attached bomb or throw it into another time period. However Kor was not so lucky. The violent explosion decapitated the vicious Metalhead, sending his head flying to the floor of the nest. The rift gate opened and began to fall apart slowly. Jak completed his task and sent his younger self back in time with Samos (younger Samos). Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that even with his peacemaker he couldn't have caused that level of explosion. Daxter knew it too but neither of them discussed it. It was a miracle that neither of them wanted to explain away.

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

Back at the Power station, while all the celebrations were going on, one of the intact screens lit up blue. White text appeared on the screen and the female voice spoke the same words, likely designed for blind users.

"Voice recognition code. Programme loaded. Programme username…"

The voice paused. An almost shy sounding male voice came from the computer and replaced it for a moment, speaking carefully as though the wrong word could break the system.

"er…Programme username: Vin."


End file.
